Would be so much more fun if Straasburg was pitching, despite how good GIo has been. Just much sexier with the beast on the mound. Unrelated somewhat, is it true that Carlos Beltran signed with St. Louis so he wouldn't have to face Adam Wainwright's curveball? That's the story I'm sticking with...

A-Rod not in the lineup today. How the mighty have fallen...and in a span of just 3 days. I've been a staunch defender of A-Rod for years but he looks absolutely lost out there, getting beat by 85 mph fastballs. Find it difficult to argue with Girardi here.

For the record, most of the other players in the lineup deserve to be benched as well.

BronXBombers51 wrote:A-Rod not in the lineup today. How the mighty have fallen...and in a span of just 3 days. I've been a staunch defender of A-Rod for years but he looks absolutely lost out there, getting beat by 85 mph fastballs. Find it difficult to argue with Girardi here.

For the record, most of the other players in the lineup deserve to be benched as well.

I just think the Arod anti-clutch narrative is hilarious. Like he's 37 years old and has dealt with a ton of injuries, he's not the same player he used to be. Then you see reporters saying things like "If you remove Arod's stats from the 2009 postseason look how bad he's been". Like seriously? I could probably find quite a few players who look pretty bad in the postseason if you cherry-pick out their best year.

BronXBombers51 wrote:A-Rod not in the lineup today. How the mighty have fallen...and in a span of just 3 days. I've been a staunch defender of A-Rod for years but he looks absolutely lost out there, getting beat by 85 mph fastballs. Find it difficult to argue with Girardi here.

For the record, most of the other players in the lineup deserve to be benched as well.

I just think the Arod anti-clutch narrative is hilarious. Like he's 37 years old and has dealt with a ton of injuries, he's not the same player he used to be. Then you see reporters saying things like "If you remove Arod's stats from the 2009 postseason look how bad he's been". Like seriously? I could probably find quite a few players who look pretty bad in the postseason if you cherry-pick out their best year.

I completely agree with you. This whole clutch/choker stuff is ridiculous but the fact is, he looks completely lost right now and has for awhile, especially against righties. I don't think it's fair that he gets almost all the blame when Cano, Granderson and Swisher have looked equally as bad or worse...but to bench Grandy or Swish you change the entire outfield and unless you're putting Gardner in, the defense really suffers a lot.

A Fleshner Fantasy wrote:I heard that Jeter is back in the field at SS. In that case, who DH's? Is it Ibanez? Because that dude terrifies me. I think it's going to be a close one, but I'll say 3-2 O's.

Also, people keep talking about how bad the Yanks' big hitters have been, but it's the same with the Orioles. Jones and Wieters really need to step up.